Horrocks, EMI in record deal

'Voice' thesp to record big-band classics

LONDON — After revealing her show-stopping set of pipes in “Little Voice,” Brit actress Jane Horrocks has landed a record deal with EMI.

She’s in advanced negotiations to front a disc of big-band classics that will be recorded in May for release in October. The twist is that, as in “Little Voice,” she will perform not as herself, but as an impersonator of more famous voices.

In both the original stage version of “Little Voice” and the subsequent Miramax movie, Horrocks wowed the crowd with her uncanny vocal imitations of Marilyn Monroe, Shirley Bassey and Judy Garland.

Voice vistas

But instead of simply revisiting the ditties for which these divas are best known, she will use the new album to marry their voices, and others, with unexpected tunes. Which voices and songs will be involved has yet to be fixed.

Horrocks, who is currently shooting the Brit romantic comedy “Born Romantic,” will fly to New York in April to work with the bands laying down the backing tracks.

Her enthusiasm for the project has forced her to drop out of Stewart Sugg’s “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” in which she was set to star alongside Stellan Skarsgard and Chris Penn. Pic is due to shoot at the same time she will be in the recording studio.